Poems
Original Poetry by Warren GastonThe Penultimate Fly
The second to last time I saw a living fly, the fly was on my neighbor's cat. The cat was dead.
Shooting Stars
In his hands he held two small stars, hatchlings fallen from the nest of sky. His palms burned with stellar storge*. He thought himself lucky. How often do you get to comfort what you love? He himself had been lost once in a strange land. At night he released them...
What Should Not be Said
In the interest of fitting into polite society, I was given a list of what I could not say. Seventeen pages single spaced. Not vulgar things. Things that might cause thoughtful pain. I ate the list as if it was communion bread. For years I was nourished by forbidden...
Helping the Poor
I went to help the poor. Free food was to be given out. I was to help give it. Many were in line. Outside the wall of a church. The truck with food was to arrive at nine. It was ten. The truck with food was to arrive at ten. It was eleven. It was noon when the truck...
“Breaking Bad”
I am sitting on a bench looking at nature, as if the park is a museum of preserved things and nature is an object ‘d art for me to enjoy. A nasal tickle causes me to sneeze. A quick wind rushes against the world. I recall the metaphoric ‘butterfly effect’, the theory...
The Way It’s Supposed to Be
Her coffee cup is blue. My coffee cup is red. Her cup goes on the right side of the cupboard, handle pointed forward. My cup goes on the left side of the cupboard, handle pointed right. There must be reasons for this ceramic configuration. I don’t remember what they...
Histories on the Beach
What I see are bodies on the beach, not histories, bodies seeking sun, people less layered, more lathered, jumbled footprints pressed in sand. I see a couple staring through tunnels of lack. What I don’t see are parents minus child, an accident, no charges filed,...
The Philosophy Exam
Is there _________? If no, why not? If yes, why?
We’ve Been Warned this Would Happen
We’ve been warned this would happen, obliteration from our privileged spot huddled between Venus and Mars, fidgeting with both love and war. The sun, our blazing mother would eat us like some animals devour their bloody young. Some suspected that before our hot mama...